


On the Restoration of Magic in the Monarchy of Our Great Country

by percybysshes (kitmarlowed)



Category: Victoria (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Fusion, Alternate Universe - Magic, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-10-09 06:48:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10406328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitmarlowed/pseuds/percybysshes
Summary: It is a truth, woefully under-acknowledged and indeed mostly unknown, that the Royal bloodline of the Electress of Hanover occasionally begets natural (which of course lends itself better to practical) magicians. It is, also, a largely unknown truth that a great many statesmen tend to try for magic, with varying degrees of success.





	

It is a truth, woefully under-acknowledged and indeed mostly unknown, that the Royal bloodline of the Electress of Hanover occasionally begets natural (which of course lends itself better to _practical_ ) magicians. It is, also, a largely unknown truth that a great many statesmen tend to try for magic, with varying degrees of success.

*

“So,” said Emma, the Lady Portman, to her good friend (and one of those aforementioned statesmen, of the kind with more success) Lord Melbourne one evening. “How is our Queen?”

As, her good friend being the Prime Minister and having visited the Palace to-day, Emma was much pleased that he had chosen her husband’s drawing room to grace this night. Her friend looked pale and bright all at once, a lovely evolution from the weary and _wary_ friend she had seen most of late. It was, thought Emma to herself, not unlike a fire had been lit in a long unused part of Melbourne’s breast. He paced the room like a lion, where recently he had been quite still in company.

“Well, madam, she is well,” came the reply (slightly flustered if Emma was any judge of character. Which of course she _was._ Knowing everyone is a job that takes a lot of skill in being cognizant of what people feel before even they do).

“Is she as lovely as I remember?” 

William fixed her with a look, not pausing in his pacing. It was a bright look, and his tone in answer was wry, “And how lovely would that be?”

Emma laughed. “Oh William, I can see how lovely she is in your eyes.”

He surely closed them, and the firelight played upon his handsome features most happily. “My eyes have not the trust of my mind, Emma, I’ve not a clue what they shew you, much less that what they shew is true.”

“You’ve the look of a knight of old,” was Emma’s rejoinder. “Tell me more about her, I should like to know her before the fact if I am to have a place at court.” She said this last in a moderately pointed manner and saw her companion smile.

“Of the outside world, she has been rendered almost entirely ignorant.” Melbourne frowned, looking at the fire as if in askance. “She knows nothing but wishes this to be known even less. I fear she has her grandfather’s stubbornness.”

“Yes, but is she,” the lady paused, and thought of better words, “- is she in the _same_ _way_ he was?”

“I’ve no idea,” replied her friend, drily, “for no sooner had I kissed her Royal hand as I was dismissed. If she needs help, she says she shall ask for it!”

Emma inclined her head, and, picking up the newspaper, began again: “I have heard tell of a system,” she prompted and her husband (who was also in the room, reading) agreed which prompted Melbourne to look up, suprized to find Lord Portman there.

“Ah yes,” Lord Melbourne said, and something a little like anger flashed in his eyes. “A ghastly thing. I dare say that our meeting was the first moment she had ever been alone with anyone not of her household! Her governess looked at me like she wanted to afix me to the stones.”

“But you saw the system in action?” pressed Emma.

“Alas, for you, I have no insight. As I say no sooner had I greeted her than been rebuffed. Though that damned Conroy did mention a ‘sheltered life’ as if it weren’t his own sinister design.” Indeed, the gentleman had felt an itch in his palms and an urge to summon some vine or root to fix the odious man in place and let him live a sheltered life, for Lord Melbourne was a magician of no little, albeit for a long time latent, power. The urge to do some small harm to Conroy had only strengthened at Her Majesty’s insistence that the man have absolutely nothing to do with the running of her life. Melbourne did not tell Emma this, though he’d have thought she might already sense it.

“I’d heard that it was to keep the girl docile,” said Emma with a little outrage, still sitting as her companion paced the room, “and her gift only nascent. Perhaps she will need your tutelage, William!” she cried. “You who can teach her not only governance but Magic.”

Lord Melbourne smiled his arch smile. “I doubt that very much, Emma, our Queen is not very trusting. And a magician’s temperament would not befit her office.”

“Though it may befit her?” Emma smiled, softly chiding. “You’ll charm her, and indeed if she be capable of magic, why - you might be her only true friend in this world.” 

“She is our Queen, Emma,” William sighed, “and I am not a nursemaid or a friend. (Though, thought he to himself, he might like to be) I am her servant and… well, the leader of her government for the benighted present. It would not be proper, nor indeed necessary for her to learn such things even should she wish too.”

“She will,” said Emma with certainty, “a caged girl such as her is likely to be a romantic.”

A shadow crossed Lord Melbourne’s proud and handsome face, and Emma almost regretted her words. But then, a small smile, and all forgiven: “She certainly has the fire about her, that’s certain.”

“So we shall see, then. If she is like her grandfather, and like you.”

William finally sat, twisting his fingers through his hair, and answered, “Yes, we shall see.”

Emma picked up her correspondence from the table, concluding that William no longer wished to speak on the topic of the young Queen. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her friend drain his glass of brandy and draw one aristocratic finger around the stem, fiddling. She elbowed her husband, not wishing to leave the Prime Minister to his gloom.

“More brandy, Melbourne?” said her husband, gesturing to the decanter and hovering to take their friend’s glass.

“Always.” came the reply, and the glass, “Especially now.”

“I take it,” her husband continued before Emma could convey with a glance that he should not, “you will not be retiring, then.”

William laughed, a little harshly, before he shook his head. “No,” he said, with a little surprize, as if only just coming to terms with it himself. “No, I suppose I shan’t be.” 

He took the glass graciously, and Emma settled back into her chair. 

“So tell me, William, have you learnt any new spells?”

*

While her Prime Minister and his friends were talking, Her Majesty Queen Victoria of England was sat upon her chaise with a book and bowl with her erstwhile governess, Louise Lehzen. 

“Lehzen, could you tell me more about Lord Melbourne?” asked her charge, holding a hand out over the bowl with a frown of concentration. “I should like to know more about him before I see him next.”

Suddenly, the water in the bowl set alight, sending Dash yipping away. The Queen looked delighted and reached to sooth the dog as Lehzen spluttered.

“Well done, Majesty,” the Baroness said, dazed, “what would you like to know?”

“I’ve heard Uncle Cumberland talk ill of him,” Victoria confided. “And I believe one such slur was ‘ _charlatan_ ’. Do you think,” she asked excitedly, “ that he could be like me?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> this started out as an exercise in style but might go on. I liked the idea of Melbourne not only teaching Vicky the constitution but also taking her as a magic student.
> 
> Rated for (potential) further chapters.
> 
> I would also like to point out that I am a huge anti-monarchist and have no idea why I like this damn show or these damn people.


End file.
